Homeland Security: Geared down

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD

Published 10:00 pm, Saturday, April 15, 2006

The Iraq war has taken an obvious toll on members of the National Guard and their families. The citizen soldiers account for nearly one-third of U.S. forces there and have suffered disproportionate casualties.

Less widely recognized is the toll the war has taken on the National Guard's equipment, and therefore its ability to respond to domestic natural disasters or terrorist attacks.

Gov. Christine Gregoire brought it to our attention when we met with her last week. Washington's National Guard has been forced to leave behind more than 1,400 items, including 60 percent of its stock of humvees, radios and GPS locators, at a value of just under $33 million, according to Maj. Gen. Timothy Lowenberg, adjutant general of the Washington National Guard.

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In all, U.S. Guard units have left behind more than $1.2 billion in equipment.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office reports that as of last July domestic U.S. Army National Guard units had transferred more than 101,000 pieces of equipment to units deployed in Iraq and that National Guard units in Iraq had left behind 64,000 pieces of equipment, some used by newly arriving units; some lost or destroyed.

The list includes everything from night-vision goggles to rifles to humvees and tanks.

That's left the cupboard recklessly bare at domestic Guard armories.

Chemical-agent monitoring equipment, armored humvees and night-vision goggles are in some case simply all gone, according to the GAO. Stocks of machine guns, chemical decontamination equipment, flatbed trailers and lightweight rifles stand at 16 percent or less of authorized inventory. The Pentagon doesn't know where all the equipment went and how -- or if -- it will be replaced.

"What we found," Thompson said, "is that the Army National Guard has been left dangerously under-equipped for a future military challenge or domestic disaster because most of their equipment went to Iraq and never came back."

It makes no sense to wage a war on terrorism if front-line domestic military forces may be -- quite literally -- not be equipped to respond.